I have been studying the English language for about three years. I know I still have a lot of things to learn, not only about grammar, style, vocabulary and pronunciation, but a bunch of other stuffs. In the first year of study, I used to read and listen to English from two to three hours a day. The first book I read was Harry Potter. I can say that my English has changed completely after that. Here is my advice: pick a book of at least 300 pages (a novel would do the work, but be careful to pick a book you like); read it from the beginning to the end and never go back; don't even think about stopping your reading to look up words in your dictionary; just read and don't mind if you know the meaning of each word; if you want, you can underline the words you don't know (You will propably get tired, or even bored, of underlining them by the middle of the book. That's ok. Just read it. It will be enough.) When you reach the middle of the book you will notice you are reading faster and you can understand the whole context even if you don't know the meaning of many words in a paragraph. If you've underlined the words you don't know, write them down in a piece of paper and using an english-to-english dictionary, write their meaning next to them (for instance, gasp - breathe noisily, as when one is exhausted.) Never translate them into your language. If you want, you can read the book once more, now using your notes.